Tuesday, 7 October 2014

The SellToWales website lists the details of tenders put forward by local authorities and other 'buyers'. The latest notice for Carmarthenshire Council is for the 'Supply and installation of fixed and mobile digital screen media for Carms Leisure Services'. Basically it's for six fixed screens and a van to relay digital blurbs promoting a healthy lifestyle, targeting, for example, the 'frail elderly'.

The notice mentions the 'overarching Welsh Government supported Intermediate Care Fund' (ICF) which, I assume, given the dire financial straits of the council's social care department must be where the funding for this will be coming from.

The ICF was set up by the Welsh Government with a pot of £50m late last year with the primary aim 'to support older people to maintain their independence and remain in their own home' and several examples of the current projects underway around Wales are listed on the Welsh Government website; extra intermediate care beds, occupational therapists, dementia care, crisis intervention support services etc etc.

I'm sure the 'digital display' idea is very well intentioned, (the tender notice does include the word 'sustainable' so I'm sure that ticked enough boxes by itself) and is obviously the result of a particularly enthusiastic innovative-joined-up-brainstorming-session.

I'm sure we can all picture the frail elderly transfixed and inspired, in their droves, by the patronising digital messages on their smartphones and public displays....however, I remain doubtful whether this will achieve, as stated in the tender notice, the "end goal of reducing the need for unnecessary admission to health care settings"....

Whilst on the subject of leisure services, the council run Llanelli Leisure centre opened to a fanfare a couple of months ago after a £350,000 spend on essential repair. Unfortunately this didn't seem to include a good clean and one resident has highlighted the less than hygienic surroundings to the press.

The newspaper managed to get a quote from Cllr Meryl Gravell who has scientifically identified the brown gunge on the ceramic tiles as 'a rust issue which will be removed'. A rust issue?

'The Claimant is a housewife, mother and amateur blogger. The defendants are a council and a chief executive. It is literally state versus citizen. In a large part, the origins of the entire case derive from the issue of getting ones voice heard at all'

'In light of the evidence, the allegations of perverting the course of justice are unsustainable. This is the most serious allegation and the Claimant deserves to have her reputation vindicated...Mr Davies' evidence was incoherent, confused and contradicted [his] statements given at the time...in short, Mr Davies' evidence of what happened has completely changed and he cannot be relied on'

(From closing submission for the claimant at trial, February 2013)

...In August 2016, following a very belated (three years later) complaint to the police by Mark James that I perverted the course of justice, the investigation was dropped as there was no evidence.

There never was going to be any evidence as I told the truth, on oath, at the time.